Martin Odegaard ‘dazzled’ in Real Madrid training with one report claiming he has returned from his loan spell at Arsenal ‘stronger than ever’.

That’s the things with loans. If you can’t turn them into a permanent deal, you just spend your time and money improving a player for another club. Think about it. Arsenal don’t send their youngsters to lower league clubs to help those clubs out, do they? They do it so the player can get some valuable playing time and experience that will then, hopefully, translate into success for the first team.

Anyway, that’s what we are now. A lower league club to all the big boys.

Mikel Arteta wanted keen to keep Martin Odegaard, but that only had a chance of happening if Zinedine Zidane remained at the club. He didn’t. Carlo Ancelotti jumped at the chance to return to his old job, ditching Everton after just one season.

Ancelotti had worked with Odegaard before and was keen to keep him. It looks like his faith in the midfielder will be rewarded with Defensa Central reporting that Odegaard was the standout player in Real Madrid training when they returned this week, dazzling those watching.

They also note that the Norwegian will be given ‘one more chance’ to prove himself at the club so, who knows, perhaps Mikel Arteta will be able to sign him again on loan in January.

If Arteta is still at the club, of course.